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TRIBEWORK is about consuming the process of life, the journey, together.

Friday, August 31, 2012

4 Ways to Mental Health

Mental health can be described as:

“... a state of well-being in which an
individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses
of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution
to his or her community.”

—World Health Organization

Besides this rather succinct
definition, we all have our times of madness—where our mental health runs
astray. We don’t have to be neurotic or psychotic to have mental health
challenges. This is good news as it makes us feel less isolated when parts of
our lives don’t go according to the plans we have of them and we respond poorly.

These following are four areas of
focus to promote our mental health.

1. Actualising Our Abilities

We all need to feel capable to do
things. Having a good understanding of our abilities and our capacities is a
true blessing, for through such a position we have a platform for continued growth.

Our abilities are connected with
our dreams. We all want to reach for the sky in some areas of our lives. Having
the opportunities to actualise our abilities is what we all richly desire.

Let us be courageous enough to
chase those dreams.

2. Coping with the Stresses of Life

Stressors come in all shapes and
forms, and there is a time for every one of them.

If good mental health is about
coping with the normal stresses of life, we are allowed times when we do not
cope—when there are stresses abnormal
to life.

Our ordinary goal in this area
should be to build resilience. The ability to bounce back upon setbacks will
characterise us as able to cope with the normal stresses. But because stress is
an abstract concept we shouldn’t get too hung up about coping and not coping,
what we can endure and what we can’t.

Instead, we cope the best we can.
We allow God’s grace to permeate our lives.

3. Achieving Purpose in Our Vocation

Many, many people in our world
live for a purpose that pivots on their vocation. When we work and we gain
meaning for our work and we can see we are productive, and our work bears
fruit, we gain a great deal of satisfaction.

This proves that work—paid or
unpaid—is a blessing.

Our identities are sewn into our
vocations. When we are dissatisfied with our work it may have an eventual
impact on our mental health. Vocational dissatisfaction will place our identities
in crisis. The way to better mental health is to create alignment.

We need work that satisfies us.

4. Contributing to Our Community

Volunteering is a healthy trend in
most areas of the world today. Contributing within our communities not only
aids others, there is a personal payoff too.

But still too many people are
isolated, safely cocooned in their own lives. Having no outlet of contribution
within the community is one mode of mental health starvation. This is one
reason why belonging within a church framework is good. Church more often than
not facilitates work that might be done in the community.

***

Sound mental health is of prime
concern to all of us. There are four things we can do to nurture our mental
health: 1) utilise our abilities; 2) cope with stress; 3) gain meaning from our
work; and, 4) make a contribution to our community.